While he certainly has the right to express his opinion, I'd be shocked if the President (or virtually ANY politician for that matter) could name 5 NHL teams, 5 star players, or describe what the blue lines on the ice are for.

I guess not knowing much about a given subject has never stopped a politician from opining on it...

Can anyone give insight on how Commissioners maintain their jobs? Honestly, I have no clue what these guys have to do to get fired. Stern, Goodell, Bettman all seem to be awful at there jobs. While I don't follow NBA and NHL that closely I know that Goodell at least qualifies as someone who needs to hand in a resignation letter, but what I've seen from the NHL is a complete failure to even make the sport happen.

gretzkyscores:While he certainly has the right to express his opinion, I'd be shocked if the President (or virtually ANY politician for that matter) could name 5 NHL teams, 5 star players, or describe what the blue lines on the ice are for.

I guess not knowing much about a given subject has never stopped a politician from opining on it...

Obama would name the Canadians and Leafs and then Republicans would be pissed that he couldn't remember whether or not Phoenix and Atlanta still had franchises.

thecpt:Can anyone give insight on how Commissioners maintain their jobs? Honestly, I have no clue what these guys have to do to get fired. Stern, Goodell, Bettman all seem to be awful at there jobs. While I don't follow NBA and NHL that closely I know that Goodell at least qualifies as someone who needs to hand in a resignation letter, but what I've seen from the NHL is a complete failure to even make the sport happen.

I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

Key concepts:

2 separate leagues - NHLa and NHLb (for now)No salary capsAll ticket sales, merch, and regional media deals are 100% kept by the teamsAll national TV deals are split equally.. however, you negotiate 3 TV deals. One for NHLa which is split by those teams, NHLb split by those teams, and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, split only by the teams who qualify

NHLa:

*16 teams, 2 divisions of 8. Initially selected by some formula including past history, current success, and financial factors*NHLa teams remain in NHLa unless they miss the playoffs for 3 consecutive years. If you miss for 3 consecutive years, the team is dropped to NHLb and however many teams from NHLb is promoted

NHLb:

*Current teams and you can expand this league to 30+ if you want. All of the cities in Canada who want a team like Hamilton or Quebec can now get an NHLb team and the franchise fees are split amongst NHLb teams.*All entry players are drafted by NHLb teams, NHLa does not participate in the draft. All players get a automatic 3-year contract slotted by draft position. NHLb teams can trade or sell players to NHLa teams*NHLb will have some sort of aggregated point system to determine who will advance once a NHLa spot is open

There is a separate NHLb bracket that the top 2 NHLb teams can be dropped back into if they get eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoffs. (think Euro League/Champions League)

Benefits to the NHLa Owners: They'll probably get a bigger TV deal due to better, more interesting matchups and don't have to split their local revenues.Benefits to NHLb Owners; Franchise fees, access to young talent they can groom and build, or groom and sell to make more money. They get access to the playoff pot when they qualify.Benefits to players: NHLa teams will pay big bucks and won't have a cap to stop them. NHLa teams close to being dropped will spend even bigger bucks to stay up.Benefits to fans: Fans of NHLa teams get good hockey every night. No more games vs the Panthers. Fans of NHLb teams get screwed some for sure, but they'll will have to get amped when their team gets in the playoffs and knocks off a top level team..who knows, maybe make a big run with their young talent.

MugzyBrown:I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

There's too much diving in the sport already. Modeling it after international grass diving will only further encourage the likes of Maxim Lapierre, Brad Marchand, Alexander Semin(te-hee), Joe Thornton, P.K. Subban, Ryan Kesler, and the Sedin twins.

MugzyBrown:I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

This is win-win. Either a quick 48 game season + playoffs or Bettman's legacy is left in shambles.

He will be shredded in the press if 2 seasons in 8 years are lost. The backlash could be enough to cost him his job. Then , true or not, he will solidly be known as the worst commissioner in sports history. Any good he accomplished will be forgotten and those two blank spaces on the list of Stanley Cup winners will forever haunt him.

MugzyBrown:I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

Decillion:This is win-win. Either a quick 48 game season + playoffs or Bettman's legacy is left in shambles.

He will be shredded in the press if 2 seasons in 8 years are lost. The backlash could be enough to cost him his job. Then , true or not, he will solidly be known as the worst commissioner in sports history. Any good he accomplished will be forgotten and those two blank spaces on the list of Stanley Cup winners will forever haunt him.

So, let's say Bettman is fired and a deal is in place for next season. Who/what's to say that the next meat puppet the owners hire won't be as bad if not worse?

Rev.K:MugzyBrown: I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

MOTHER OF F*CKING GOD.

You couldn't be more wrong.

That is a horrendous idea and utterly unworkable.

This. Aside from many markets just imploding when a NHLa team gets dropped, and never recovering, you would never be able to build a new arena again, teams that have nice arena's that get dropped to b will never be able to fill them, and the NHLa teams will be boring playing eachother 6 or 7 times a year.

So, let's say Bettman is fired and a deal is in place for next season. Who/what's to say that the next meat puppet the owners hire won't be as bad if not worse?

Fans won't know or care if he's good or not. They still don't know that Bettman is actually good in some areas. It's, "Ding dong the witch is dead," for at least five years. The new guy will get huge cheers for a long time.

Hockey fans are not soccer fans. If you "relegated" the Montreal Canadians for any number of missed playoffs, Montreal citizens would riot, march to New York, and burn NHL headquarters.

Hockey players are not soccer players. They have been known to play with broken legs, feet, hands, etc. They work like hell to get to the big show. They would flee relegated teams for perennially successful teams. You would institutionalize a permanent two-tier league.

Hockey owners are not soccer owners. They cannot afford a league without a salary cap. The senior league would have to have one. The junior league, well, one way that this might work is if there were a salary cap on the senior league but no salary cap on the junior league. Although this would have to be modeled to see it's effect. Still might not work.

I blame Donald Fehr just because the man should still, 18 years later, be dragged out into the streets of Montreal and flogged for the baseball strike ruining their one and only shot at glory. Nevermind the fact that the owners and Bettman are the ones who locked the players out, I hold Donald Fehr 110% responsible for this mess, no matter how right he might actually be this time.

Galloping Galoshes:Hockey owners are not soccer owners. They cannot afford a league without a salary cap. The senior league would have to have one

The large hockey teams do not need a cap, and if they don't want to spend money, they're not forced to.

LineNoise:Aside from many markets just imploding when a NHLa team gets dropped, and never recovering

Then they implode.. let whatever contraction happen, happen naturally. If you can't support your team, it goes away, but AHL teams succeed in little cities, so I would imagine without a salary floor, an NHL team could just adjust their payroll accordingly to survive. Maybe they never make it back up.. well then they never make it back up.

LineNoise:and the NHLa teams will be boring playing eachother 6 or 7 times a year.

Division teams alreay play eachother 6 times. You play your 7 division teams 6 times and out of division teams 4 times. 84 game season,,, though I'd prefer a shorter schedule, but teams wouldn't want to lose so many games. Plus I'm sure when your team plays the Floridas and Carolinas of the world, you're amped.

Rev.K:MugzyBrown: I believe the due to regional nature of the sport, the league model is flawed and is only 'major' US sports league that can benefit from a more European set up. Here is my plan in glorious detail:

bluorangefyre:I blame Donald Fehr just because the man should still, 18 years later, be dragged out into the streets of Montreal and flogged for the baseball strike ruining their one and only shot at glory. Nevermind the fact that the owners and Bettman are the ones who locked the players out, I hold Donald Fehr 110% responsible for this mess, no matter how right he might actually be this time.

Your anger is misdirected.If you were an Expos fan are are mad at anyone, it should be Jeffrey Loria.

MugzyBrown:The large hockey teams do not need a cap, and if they don't want to spend money, they're not forced to.

Then you get all the good players in those leagues because the relegated teams can't afford them. You end up just churning the bad teams up for a few years until they get re-relegated. Basically the NHLb becomes an expensive minor league system.

Galloping Galoshes:Then you get all the good players in those leagues because the relegated teams can't afford them. You end up just churning the bad teams up for a few years until they get re-relegated. Basically the NHLb becomes an expensive minor league system.

And?

The lower level teams get access to all of the young talent. If they want to use that access to sell players and be a feeder team, that's their issue. If they want to use that advantage to compete in the big leagues, good for them.

MugzyBrown:The lower level teams get access to all of the young talent. If they want to use that access to sell players and be a feeder team, that's their issue. If they want to use that advantage to compete in the big leagues, good for them.

You're assuming that talent is OK with playing in a relegated league. Ask small-market teams in any sport how well retaining their drafted talent works out for them.

MugzyBrown:The lower level teams get access to all of the young talent. If they want to use that access to sell players and be a feeder team, that's their issue. If they want to use that advantage to compete in the big leagues, good for them.

You know that they're trying to get rid of contracts-for-life (because they're a really, really stupid idea), right?

Actually it was. Record revenues, a new champ every year for seven straight seasons post lockout, Cups in the Bible Belt and California and Original Six teams hoisting Lord Stanleys mug. The problem is not competitiveness, it's a small group of rich assholes whose entire approach to everything is "I got mine, fark the rest of you". Don't believe me? Well for starters most owners aren't even allowed to attend negotiations. Furthermore they're not even told what transpires during those negotiations. The other week when it was direct talks between owners and players, the latter was shocked to find out just how many of the former had no frigging idea what had been discussed and proposed since the lockout began.

Flappyhead:The other week when it was direct talks between owners and players, the latter was shocked to find out just how many of the former had no frigging idea what had been discussed and proposed since the lockout began.

In fairness, it's also in their interest to paint the owners as completely incompetent as a group within the media. And it's not like Fehr's groups have been worried about being honest in the media throughout this whole deal (see: pretending deals were imminent over and over).

IAmRight:Flappyhead: The other week when it was direct talks between owners and players, the latter was shocked to find out just how many of the former had no frigging idea what had been discussed and proposed since the lockout began.

In fairness, it's also in their interest to paint the owners as completely incompetent as a group within the media. And it's not like Fehr's groups have been worried about being honest in the media throughout this whole deal (see: pretending deals were imminent over and over).